Out of all the content creation choices in the Magic Community, why Podcasting? I have no idea. I’ve never been the best story teller. I’ve never desired a position of leadership or had a desire to build a brand. I wasn’t lazy but some of us just don’t enjoy leading the pack. I think its human nature to make a difference in the world, in some form or fashion, but I never thought podcasting would result in have such opportunities. On Tap N Sac Ep #100 “Remember Your Roots” we bring back an original cohost of the show to tell the origin story of how the show started but I’ve never really talked about why I decided to keep making episodes when my original cohosts moved on to other interests. We all thought starting a podcast would just be a fun phase in our lives and eventually become a joke to tell the kids one day. For some reason, I just enjoyed the freedom of speech aspect podcasting had. I had a radio show in college (Rock and a Hard Place w/ DJ Ginger Ale) that I enjoyed until the procedures, guidelines, and drama exiled the happiness sharing music brought to me.
I interned for a Nashville Rock Radio station for a semester and found a similar set of amplified problems restricting creativity and unconventional expression. During both of these experiences I was still making Tap N Sac episodes with a new set of cohosts. I started looking forward to casting every week and eventually realized my love of being behind a mic didn’t have to result in a career. It can simply be the same experience athletes feel when they hit the gym to relieve stress or artist feel when they paint to forget about the world. What gives the podcast experience depth is the community that supports it. I love talking to players at the local stores but Podcasting lets me interact with anyone who dares to download an episode. People listen because they enjoy the content, can interact with the casters behind the mics, and be a part of a like-minded community. What’s better than that?!
…as a writer
Similar to podcasting, if you told me when I graduated high school I would enjoy writing essays (aka articles) outside of the classroom I would laugh you out of the room. English was my least favorite subject and the concepts of grammar, spelling, and punctuation never really hit home. I type how I talk and constantly have to simplify my wordy sentences. If you don’t believe me, ask anyone who’s edited my articles.
So why the hell did I start writing? It was probably when listeners ask me why I didn’t write articles. Also, I had to do a project in college where we made a blog and wrote stuff on it throughout the semester. When the project concluded (I got an A), I just kept writing. I wrote about digital media and philosophy because they intrigued me and, in turn, eventually became my major and minor for my bachelor’s degree. College busyness, jobs, and podcasting restricted the amount of writing I did but I always wrote down most of the content ideas (still a Google Doc currently four pages long). Writing was just another way to interact and give back to a community I was proud to be a part of. Now I am honored to write amongst the financial juggernauts here at MTG Price.com and continue to attempt a weekly production of read-worthy articles.
…as a community member
Somehow no matter what happened at last Fridays FNM I’m always excited to cap off the last weekday with a Magic tournament. I’ve always wondered how many hours I’ve actually spent at a LGS (Local Game Store). Even when I worked at one I’m probably clocked in more hours off the clock than on. The gaming culture is nothing short of one-of-a-kind. From your favorite types of personalities to those who have somehow made all you pet peeves into everyday habits. You can find just about anything but a date at your local gamers paradise. I look at the singles case even when I’m not going to buy anything. I’ll buy booster packs of a game I don’t even play just because it’s more fun than scratching off a lottery ticket. LGS’s are the gateway to competition and the where the kitchen table casual players can play when mom sprawled out her “organized” session of coupon clipping. It’s where every player has a chance to make a difference. If you work at one you can also come up with some fun and creative ways to run tournaments or pull players to your store. Nothing is more satisfying than making the store profit while also keeping the players fed and happy. Everything above is a moment, experience, or story I was a part of or observed at a LGS. I didn’t have to say a card name or tell and exaggerated “how I made him salty” story to convince you this community is diverse and one-of-a-kind.
When I guest stared on Erin Cambell’s podcast The Deck Tease (Episode #45) she ask me why I put links to my social accounts in the shownotes? A good question with a simple answer. I never expected the show to be downloaded in the first place. Having another outlet to interact with MTG players outside my local area was an exciting opportunity, not a safety issue. With that answer, I realized as a trader, collector, player, podcaster, writer, and community member, the interactions that happen around the game are just as enjoyable as playing it.
BRIEF TEMPORAL ASIDE: I’m jealous of all of you who are reading this, because you are living in a time when Modern Masters 2015 has come out, while I am currently trapped in the past. Are you gonna crack some packs? I know I am! Cracking packs is so much fun.
Rather than talking about Modern Masters 2015, I want to talk about Modern itself. A lot of writers have done individual set or block reviews (myself included!), but I don’t think there has been a narrative overview of what Magic was like when those sets were out. We are going to do that, and compile some information that often gets discarded. You’ll see what I mean as we go along.
Eighth Edition
This was the first set to feature the new card face that would later go on to kill Magic1. The set, like all pre-M10 core sets, was comprised entirely of reprints. The selling point, though, was that this set would contain one reprint from every previous Magic set that had not been in a core set already. Neat!
Other finance gems worth noting include Planar Portal, the Urza-tron lands, and foil copies of Fecundity, Merchant Scroll, and Vernal Bloom. The first Standard format that Eighth Edition came into was Odyssey/Onslaught/Eighth, and neither of those expert-level blocks are Modern legal—if you want to see what the format looked like, check out the 2003 World Champs. Oh, and they made a big deal about the prerelease (even though the promo was Rukh Egg), and I won mine.
Non-Foil Cards of Note
Blood Moon – This card is in good Modern decks and bad Legacy decks.
Elvish Piper – Commander, and the eventual inverse of Tiny Leaders (Okks?).
Coat of Arms – Commander and any weird tribal format.
Choke – Modern, Legacy, and anything that is dominated by blue.
Foils of Note that Aren’t Just the Same as Above
Birds of Paradise – I’m not entirely sure why, but this is one of the most expensive printings of Birds. Seventh Edition foils blows these out of the water, though.
Storm Crow – I hate that the Storm Crow people have made this happen. Retail “price” of $32, best buylist price of $4. One of those prices is off, and I think it’s the first one.
Now, I do love me some UG Madness2 and some Goblin Bidding, but that’s not really what this section is going to be for. As we roll into future sets, I’ll mention any decks that I think may be worth having on a resurrection radar—maybe an old archetype could benefit from new technology! I don’t expect much, but it’s worth looking. Also, I’ll be able to tell you if a deck was the real deal (like Karstenbot) or bogus (like Ghost Dad).
Analysis
There are a lot of foils in this set that are worth money, and there are fifteen rares worth $3 or more. The downside is that the set had 111 rares, so only about ten percent of the rares are worth the typical price of admission. There are some major wins if you hit on a foil, but I’m not going to tell you to buy a bunch of old packs to hopefully open a foil rare.
This set, despite its gimmick, was not super popular, since most of the marquee cards at the time (Persecute, Birds of Paradise, Wrath of God) were cards that enfranchised players already owned. Sealed packs look to be between $5 and $8 (ignoring shipping), so that’s not quite low enough to look appealing. If you are a gambler, and your local store has had these on a shelf since 2003, maybe they’ll take $3 each just to clear up space, but even then, 111 rares is a lot. To compare, there are 73 rares and mythics combined in M15, and only 68 rares and mythics combined in Dragons of Tarkir. If you open a box and each rare is different, you are only going to open 32 percent of the rares in the set, and only about three to five of them are expected to be “hits” (versus the lower price of entry, if you can even get it).
The prudent thing to do is to stay away, which means that these cards are going to slowly keep creeping up in value. All of the cards in here are prime candidates for reprinting in a future Modern Masters or Commander product (it’s already happened for some), although some of the more powerful cards, like Plow Under, are unlikely to ever be put in Standard again.
Oh, and I’ll mention this now since we were talking about packs: don’t forget that the foil distribution process didn’t change until Planar Chaos (where the foil replaces a common), so if you open a foil rare, that is also your rare. You can’t get two rares.
Parting Words
Don’t buy packs, do look up any foils that you see in longboxes where you don’t already know the price.
Mirrodin
This was the first expert-level set to feature the new card frame, and, to be fair, did a pretty good job as a block trying to kill Magic. This was also the first set to leave Dominaria in a long time, and we wouldn’t return until Time Spiral. The block’s theme was “artifacts matter,” and the books were terrible. I don’t want to talk too much about the block as a whole, since we are going through sets individually, which will probably help me limit my hateful vitriol to Darksteel where it belongs.
Mirrodin introduced affinity, equipment, and Mindslaverto Magic, so it certainly has had an impact. The set definitely had hype going into release, and the massive amount of design space devoted to coolartifacts has definitely given the world several casual favorites. The prerelease card, Sword of Kaldra, was a big hit with the Timmy/Tammy crowd, and the only reason it isn’t worth more is because I doubt most newer players are aware it exists3.
I remember Mirrodin pretty well, because it was around the time I started FNMing weekly as a priority. Like Eighth Edition, much of the analysis of this set in terms of Standard is going to be warped by the inclusion of sets that aren’t Modern legal (in this case, just Onslaught, one of the coolest blocks ever), and also by the fact that several of the best cards in this block got banned. I remember FNMs were getting pretty big around this time (I hopped between a few different stores). If only they knew what was about to happen…
Non-Foil Cards of Note
Chalice of the Void – Took off as anti-Treasure Cruise technology, and hasn’t come down since. The card is very good in older and more cutthroat formats like Legacy and Vintage, since there are more aggressive forms of “fast mana.” This card was a player in Old Extended with the next card on the list.
Chrome Mox – It should not come as a surprise that when WOTC uses the word “Mox” in a name that the card is very good. This card is considered to be too good for Modern, but it’s about right in Legacy, since going down an extra card when you play it is more taxing. Something to notice on Chrome Mox and some of the other top cards on this list: the buylist prices are all very good. Often a smaller spread between a buylist price and a retail price can mean copies are viewed as easy guaranteed sales, which you can extrapolate as expressed confidence in the card in the long term. If the big dealers like something, then you probably should too.
Oblivion Stone – This card went from zero to hero with the advent of EDH, and has cemented a place in Modern with the consistent success of Tron decks. Two big populations like this card, and it’s pretty good in Cube, too. This is basically Nevinyrral’s Disk to a generation of players. That’s a good thing.
Glimmervoid– Some versions of Affinity play lots of spells of different colors, so this is pretty much their best land.
Tooth and Nail – If you resolve this in Constructed, you win. There are lots of different two card combos to find with Tooth and Nail, but I’ll always have a soft spot for Mephidross Vampire and Triskelion. For a while, Tooth and Nail was an easy twenty bucks, so don’t be surprised if the current price of $8 balloons up again.
Duplicant – Popular EDH card and actual spot removal spell in Vintage (you can cast it off Mishra’s Workshop!). Yes, this is why the foil price is insane.
Platinum Angel – Despite a couple reprints, this is one of those marquee cards that is always going to keep a respectable price. “You can’t lose” is pretty appealing to most Magic players and/or Parker Lewis.
Sculpting Steel – Another card that is good because of Mishra’s Workshop, although this has largely been co-opted by Phyrexian Metamorph.
Solemn Simulacrum – This is the original set foil version of this card. Sad Robot, perhaps, but at that price, I’d be smiling.
Lightning Greaves– EDH staple, or at least it used to be. Also original set foil.
Mindslaver – The other best card in Magic.
Thoughtcast– Again, original set foil. This card is crucial in Affinity decks, since playing your entire hand at once typically becomes a disadvantage if the game goes on for much longer.
Sylvan Scrying– Original set foil, finds Urza lands and other toolbox effects. Played as a 4x in a few Modern decks.
Molten Rain – This card hasn’t been in either Modern Masters set yet, which is surprising. This card is very good, and I’m surprised the foils are only $10.
Noteworthy Standard Decks
Broodstar Affinity – It didn’t take long (by 2003 standards) for Affinity to be uncovered as an extremely unfair mechanic. The five artifact lands, in concert with Disciple of the Vault and Atog(yes, really), helped enable some extremely degenerate strategies.
The decks also featured Broodstar, a heavy-hitting beater that would get in large chunks of damage coming down extremely early. Broodstar was a serious threat, and is probably the only Affinity-era star to not get serious consideration in Modern. The reason why is likely because Affinity decks now lean towards strategies that better support Cranial Plating, which encourages a wide threat of small artifact creatures, rather than just a bunch of artifacts. I’m not sure if Broodstar adds anything to existing Affinity strategies or if building a new version around the flier is worth exploring, but Broodstars are currently dirt cheap and Affinity is very popular in Modern (and Legacy!). Much of the other stuff that was in these lists was later replaced by better cards in the other two sets (sorry, Scale of Chiss-Goria).
RDW – Red decks are always going to try to be as lean and redundant as possible, so it’s hard to find something that is “hidden” in terms of red deck technology. Molten Rain is probably as good an example of a hidden gem as red decks can get, which should tell you how little meat is still left on the bone. Arc Slogger does not belong anywhere near your Modern red deck. Slith Firewalker is probably not even good enough, which stinks.
Analysis
Looking through the foil prices on Mirrodin, I started to realize how many good cards there are in this set. While you can never truly judge a book or a Magic set by its cover, I think it actually makes thematic sense that Mirrodin has a wide variety of cards with casual appeal. Artifacts, by their nature, are accessible to decks of every color, so the demand is more widespread—if something is good, it’s a card that all EDH players want, not just ones playing blue (like Bribery) or green (like that dumb creature that does a thing). Put a pin in this topic, we’ll come back to it in a bit.
Anyway, boxes look to be about $250, which puts packs just shy of $7. There are only eleven cards that beat that mark (or come super close, like Sculpting Steel), so buying packs is a losing proposition once again (this is often going to be the case). There are a few uncommons and commons of value in the set, including Wrench Mind, which is the closest Modern is ever going to get to Hymn to Tourach4. This is a great set to pick through when you are looking at bulk, and there are a handful of cards out of this set that may be worth a closer look (I’ll be changing the way I do my set reviews to better fit this new series in the future, so they are complimentary pieces rather than basically writing the same thing twice).
It’s worth mentioning once again that Mirrodin on release was a very popular set. Standard was still heavily defined by Onslaught, but that set, while it featured some pretty powerful strategies, wasn’t so strong that it overshadowed new tech. There were a lot of people, myself included, who were just happy that Odyssey block was gone, if you can believe that. Those sets were cool, but rewarded thinking in a way that was only clear to very good players.
Coming up next: the set that would send the tournament player base into a nose dive.
Two Sets Down…
Let me know what you thought of today’s article. It’s fun to go back and parse out what we didn’t know when all this was happening, and I try to interject what I remember personally (this will get easier as we progress and sets are more recent in my memory, except for those years where my LGS was next to an Outback Steakhouse that did happy hour right before FNM). If there is something you’d like to see me add, or you’d rather me just stick to our old set reviews, let me know. Thanks, and I’ll see you next week!
Best,
Ross
P.S. Word is that it is possible to reseal Modern Masters 2015 packs. Do not buy packs from someone you don’t trust completely, and be extremely scrupulous. Also, as a way to be respectful to other players, don’t discard the packaging in a way that other people may be able to reuse your packaging. And make sure to actually recycle them! That’s what this change was for in the first place.
P.P.S. Sounds like cards are coming out of the packs with scuffing and damage. This is likely due to the new packaging method. More on that as it unfolds.
P.P.P.S. Remember when I said to put a pin in what we were talking about before? Here’s the elevator pitch version of every Modern block in three words. Tell me which jump out as the best sets for casual cards:
Right now, we know what’s in Modern Masters 2015. We know what the From the Vault set this summer will be. We know the story lines behind the summer and fall sets.
Recent history has taught us anything, it’s that anything not on the reserve list is fair game for reprints. Whether it’s Jace, the Mind Sculptor headlining a FTV, or Mother of Runes in a Duel Deck, the only guarantee we have is that everything will eventually be reprinted.
Today, I want to look at some popular casual cards, ones that I feel have a good chance of being printed in the not-too-distant future. These are mostly cards I am willing to trade for now, but I don’t want to keep forever. I think these will get printed again, but I don’t know when.
I am not going to try and speculate on what the prices will be, because I don’t know if they’ll be in a Commander deck, a big fall set, a judge foil, or anything. All I know is that these are popular and harder to find than I thought they would be, and might get reprinted soon.
This price will probably go down when it gets banned in EDH. It is consistently on the list for cards that people complain about, because it is so incredibly overpowered. If Trade Secrets got banned because two players can work together to draw in credit cards, all it takes is this plus a Cloneeffect and you get the same outcome.
I doubt this will ever be printed in Standard. I suspect that Wizards is collaborating with the EDH Rules Committee, and figuring out whether the Sphinx should get printed again or if it’ll get banned.
Other Praetors
Elesh Norn is getting her third go-round, but the other four are all backbreaking in different ways. I am actively looking to pick up the others, especially in foil. It will be difficult to print the cycle again, so we would be looking at individual legends printed at semi-random times. Something along the lines of “Jin-Gitaxias in a blue Duel Deck.” I’m not saying it won’t happen, but I’m looking to pick them up now and be safe for at least a year.
Swords
Aside from Umezawa’s Jitte, these are the consensus first picks in any unpowered Cube. They go into any deck, have a laughably small mana investment, and have iconic art. I do not expect a judge foil printing for the other three Swords. Fire and Ice and Light and Shadow got that treatment because they were so scarce. That said, I wouldn’t be terribly surprised if they did get printed in some way, just to increase the availability. It should also be mentioned that if they haven’t gotten a Tiny Leaders bump yet, they will.
It was the GP promo for some time and is one of the ten best Equipment ever. It sees more Legacy play than any other, except perhaps for Jitte. It has a mechanic that overcomes the primary drawback of Equipment. It’s really good!
It’s probably not going to be printed again soon, but I would be very wary of it. There are many Cubes out there that still want one, and it’s great in almost every EDH deck, so yeah, I’ll pick them up but I’ll also trade them away without hesitation.
This is begging for a reprint. I would not trade for these unless I was building a new Commander deck and I didn’t have one to spare. This is amazing in Commander and nonexistent everywhere else. Swiftfoot Boots is our comparison, as it was trending upwards until being in every Commander product. Adding Plate to this winter’s offering wouldn’t be a surprise at all. Stay away!
I’m adding this one because creatures-as-board-wipes is an occasional theme and if you have a few of these as long-term holds, I think you’re going to be disappointed. I wouldn’t be shocked if the relative lack of supply pushed this over $10 in the next twelve months, and I wouldn’t be shocked if it was in a Duel Deck and went down to $2-$3.
True Story: When this was in Standard, I traded for these all day and night at $5-$7. It seemed like the most amazing card ever, easier than Chord of Calling and something everyone would want. I was caught holding about ten when the ban hit in Modern, and I dumped them in sadness. They have crept back up into the $8 range, quietly, despite being in FTV: 20. This avoided being in the mono-green Commander deck this last winter, and so I’d feel okay about trading for these. It’s unlikely they will reprint a card too good for Modern, and the Legacy use is there.
I’m treating this guy like he’s radioactive. He’s so good at so many things, and he’s due to be reprinted, I feel. He’s a wonderful sideboard option in Modern, a silver bullet to deal with counter/sweeper/removal control decks. I’m not going to be surprised when he’s printed again and I’m not going to be caught holding any.
I admit it, I don’t mind trading for Wurmcoils. They just got an infusion of supply in Commander 2014 and that should have them safe from reprints for a while. The card is silly good in any format, and sees light Eternal play in sideboards or some ramp strategies. I am on board for picking this up, as it’ll get back to $20 within a year just from the people who see how universally powerful it is.
Skittles here has tripled in price in the past three years, with the most recent increase being because it’s very nice with Scion of the Ur-Dragon. Infect damage gets past infinite life quite nicely, and granting haste and regeneration is quite handy too. This seems primed for a reprint, especially as everything with Infect dodged MM2015’s bullets and will probably show up in the next Duel Deck: Khans vs. New Phyrexia or some such.
If you’ve never played with this in Commander or Cube, you’re missing out. It’s value town, and you want to be on this train. It’s got a surprisingly low price given the ability and the fact that he’s a Legendary Zombie. I don’t think it’ll get printed again too soon, but he’s powerful and easy to add to any black deck, making him easier to print.
Survival of the Fittest is a reserved list card. (pick it up whenever you can!) Fauna Shaman is a toolbox enabler, a card that makes any Commander list sing. It’s approaching $10 despite being a mere rare, though a rare from 2010. This is a strong candidate to be printed soon, and might even be in Standard again before too long. It bears mentioning that this is an Elf, even if it doesn’t see play in Legacy lists.
The wording on this is indicative of how it predates the explosion of EDH. Note the distinction from Chalice of Life’s wording to indicate the same thing…unless your starting life is 25 or 40. Serra Ascendant sees some play in Modern Soul Sisters lists, but it’s really going to shine in Commander. Despite the wording, I think it’ll be printed again and tank pretty badly in price. Keep the few you play and move the rest.
If this dodges a reprint in Battle for Zendikar (and its expansion) then it’ll break $20. If it gets printed again this fall, it’ll drop to $5. It’s up to you. When the spoiler hits in fall, this is one of the cards to move on. If there’s new Eldrazi (very likely) then this gets better. It might see a bump in price due to all the Eye of Ugin and Eldrazi Temple that are landing with MM2015.
See above, only with less chance of a reprint. This is a silly, crazy ability lending itself to casual formats and not Constructed. I would agree if you wanted to get these now and hope, but having them be in a Commander precon wouldn’t be out of line at all.
This is a stay away for me. It’s a mana-doubler and it’s fantastic with Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth. It would have been too good, that land and this creature in Standard. Don’t overlook tricks like tapping a Blood Crypt for red mana and adding an extra black. It’ll get printed again and the price will come way down. I always forget this was mythic, too.
Worldwake man lands
Mutavaultjust got finished teaching us how format-defining man lands can be. Granted, that’s possibly the best manland ever, but the extra cost on this cycle makes up for it. I would expect Wizards to do what they did with Elesh Norn and the Praetors, where Colonnade gets printed first and the rest will get there. It’s worth mentioning that Colonnade is by far the priciest despite having been the Buy-a-Box promo.
I don’t know if they would do Landfall again, in the return to Zendikar, but if that mechanic is spoiled, you’ll need to get out of these in a hurry. There’s a good chance that it’ll be too good for Standard, especially when Exploit is in play. Thankfully, it won’t be an option to pair this with Satyr Wayfinder, but if Bloodghast isn’t in the Zendikar sets, then it’s still a prime target of reprints.
I fully expect this to be in the next Commander product. It’s really great with tokens and patience and kind of terrible in other circumstances. It’s a wonderful casual card and will be printed again before long.
Alright, so last week we went over how to find people selling their cards on Facebook for buylist prices, and how to negotiate a deal so that you don’t get scammed. I mentioned that sellers were between the two extremes of, “I want to sell my cards for SCG prices over Facebook” and “Please buy these today, I need gas money.”
You want to be a median of these two types of sellers, because it allows you to maximize profits from the things you’ve bought at buylist prices, avoid fees from eBay and TCGplayer, and get paid on the same day that you sell the cards. Today, I’m going to show you how to create a proper Facebook ad for buying and selling cards at a reasonable rate.
Rule Number 1
For the love of Pharika, don’t be any of these people. If you are one of these people, you’ll learn that changing your prices and listing methods will prove fruitful. Each of these individuals has at least one thing wrong with how they created and priced their list of cards.
Figure A
In the first post, we see someone looking to move a pretty high-value collection, if he has what he says he does. Revised duals, foil fetch lands, and staples. What duals? What fetches? I have no idea. There’s no picture, no list of cards, and no document to reference. He’s only willing to produce a list for those who are interested, which is an immediate turn-off when considering the price he’s asking. Five percent off of TCGplayer low is a price that I would sell singles for out of my display case, or if I was trying to piece out a collection over time. To ask for a number like that when selling an entire collection at once is simply unreasonable. For these reasons, his post had exactly zero comments or interested parties when I saved the picture.
Figure B
Well, at least we have a list to work with here. This person has linked to a Google document, so we can see what cards exactly we’re dealing with, and how much each of them costs. He’s looking to sell everything in order to purchase a car, so there’s clearly a bit of a hurry to move everything at once for a lump sum. The problem? Ten percent off of TCGplayer mid (which I’m assuming he used for pricing based on my quick look at the document) is not exactly a deal that we’re looking for, and it’s sure as hell not going to get him any bites. If his “firm” became “less firm,” I asked him to let me know and send me a message, as I’d gladly pay $1500 to $1700 for the whole thing, and PayPal him the money today if he provided enough tracking and shipping confirmation.
Figure C
Lastly, we’ve got this carefully typed out list. This is only about 25 percent of the total cards that he carefully typed out, but I think you can see a pattern of problems here. First of all ,”Scarcity games” doesn’t exist, so I have no idea what his cards are priced at. Then there’s the issue of him painstakingly listing every single bulk rare on his list, in an attempt to make it look like his list is more valuable than it actually is. Near-mint bulk rares are worth 10 to 12 cents each to any buyer who would be interested in picking up an entire collection, nothing more.
Rule Number 2
This rule doesn’t specifically apply to Facebook buying and selling, but more to the world of Magic: The Gathering finance as a whole. If we’re looking to sell cards, we will get paid a varying amount of money depending on the amount of work we put in. If we want to appear to be a reputable seller via Facebook and get paid approximately what our cards are worth, we want to put at least a bit of effort into our listing, and make it as easy as possible for the buyer to purchase our items without asking an infinite number of questions.
This means that every item should have an associated price tag, and not a lazy listing like, “Everything is ten percent off of TCG low,” because that just makes more work for your potential customers.
Now this is an example of a much better listing. The cheapest copy of Lion’s Eye Diamond on eBay right now is $68, and the lowest priced near-mint copy on TCGplayer is $72. Putting his at $60 almost guarantees that someone who was already eyeing (heh) one will gravitate towards this deal, but it’s also above the “liquidating these because I need rent money” pricing so that the seller makes a profit.
I only have a couple of criticisms about this listing that if addressed would serve to make the transaction easier for both parties. There’s no condition listed for any of the cards, so I’m not sure if I’m getting a great deal on a NM LED or an average priced HP copy where the back of the card has been sandpapered down. There’s also no info on shipping prices. Some people feel the need to charge $5 for tracked shipping in a bubble mailer, which would certainly take the sweetness out of that Mox Diamond deal.
Build-A-Post
Now, let’s try to make our own Facebook post that is both comprehensive, simple to read, and priced smoothly enough to make multiple sales within a couple days of the post’s origin. First of all, we want to establish a rule of how much we’ll charge for shipping and how we’ll accept payment. I usually ship for free in a plain white envelope (PWE) for total orders under $20, unless the buyer specifically requests a tracked shipment of the small order, in which case I charge $2. You can create a PayPal shipping label from home with a printer for $1.93, and then buy bubble mailers for approximately $.07 each. Once we start getting over the $50 mark, I generally just start shipping for free as a courtesy, and to encourage buyers to add a few more cards to hit that price point.
As for payment, I only accept PayPal, and I always ask for the money upfront. I have enough references to solidify my position as someone who’s not a ripoff artist. While I’ve lost a couple of deals over this, I’m not willing to ship another party cards only to have them be unable or refuse to pay. If you’re just starting out selling via Facebook, you might have to accept shipping the cards out first if you don’t have enough references. Just be sure to actually confirm that the other party has real references, and that they’re not just sending you a list of names, by waiting for replies. Payment via gift is the preferred option, because we don’t have to deal with that little three-percent fee that comes attached for the goods and services option.
Finally, let’s get to the cards and their pricing. The golden rule of thumb here is to try to make sure everything is a little bit below the cheapest available copy on eBay and TCGplayer—otherwise there’s no point in buying from you. This difference in price between your listing and the cheapest available copy can vary based on the current market for the card, taking reprints and such into account. For example, let’s say I have this Tundra:
Other than the fact that it’s yellow and looks like someone took out a cigarette and smoked directly onto it over a period of time, it’s still a sleeve-playable Tundra. It’s a dual land, and won’t ever see another printing. The cheapest heavily played copy on TCGplayer at the time of this writing is listed for $146 shipped, so I would probably put it on Facebook for somewhere around $130 if I wanted to get rid of it. While this is close to the “ten percent off of TCGplayer low” that I criticized the above seller for citing, this is the price of an individual dual land, and I’m not pricing my entire collection at this looking to unload everything. For contrast, let’s look at something that’s scheduled to be reprinted.
In contrast to Tundra, the cheapest Splinter Twin available is $19 on TCGplayer, and I would list mine on Facebook for closer to $13 or $14. The highest available buylist for Twin right now is $12 if I wanted to sell to ChannelFireball, and I’m predicting that Twin drops down to $10 or $12 a few weeks after the reprint in Modern Masters 2015. I’d rather sell it to someone who is looking to build the deck immediately instead of buylisting to CFB.
In both these cases, note that instead of glancing over a pile of cards and saying “ten percent off TCG low for everything,” I’m going through each card and determining a value that would be beneficial to both me and the buyer, depending on the future of the card.
If you’re planning on buylisting a bunch of staples in the future, you might want to look at the prices that you’re willing to accept and consider selling them on Facebook. Instead of spending time alphabetizing, set sorting, and scouring multiple different buylists for the right price, we can make this a lot easier. Add a small percentage to that number that the store offered, list some rules for shipping and payment, add a couple of pictures of the collection, and then wait for some replies.
And there we have it! This is obviously just a very basic template, but it conveys the message quickly and can be customized to add more cards easily. We made sure that we were beating the current market price to move product quickly, established shipping and payment in advance so that we don’t have to waste time answering questions about it, and we’ll get paid today if someone’s interested in the cards.
One final note when making posts across multiple groups, though, is to wait at least a couple days after posting a listing in a single group . You don’t want to spam the feed and get kicked out. Good luck!
End Step
In other news, Abrupt Decay has started creeping back up on MTGstocks Interests. It’s only up by five percent, but I fully expect this to be a $20 card sooner rather than later. If you need copies now, I think now is the time to buy, and they’re still great trade targets. Remember that almost anyone building a Tarmogoyf deck is going to need these, and I don’t think it’ll be getting a reprint soon.
MAGIC: THE GATHERING FINANCE ARTICLES AND COMMUNITY
Similar to podcasting, if you told me when I graduated high school I would enjoy writing essays (aka articles) outside of the classroom I would laugh you out of the room. English was my least favorite subject and the concepts of grammar, spelling, and punctuation never really hit home. I type how I talk and constantly have to simplify my wordy sentences. If you don’t believe me, ask anyone who’s edited my articles.
Somehow no matter what happened at last Fridays FNM I’m always excited to cap off the last weekday with a Magic tournament. I’ve always wondered how many hours I’ve actually spent at a LGS (Local Game Store). Even when I worked at one I’m probably clocked in more hours off the clock than on. The gaming culture is nothing short of one-of-a-kind. From your favorite types of personalities to those who have somehow made all you pet peeves into everyday habits. You can find just about anything but a date at your local gamers paradise. I look at the singles case even when I’m not going to buy anything. I’ll buy booster packs of a game I don’t even play just because it’s more fun than scratching off a lottery ticket. LGS’s are the gateway to competition and the where the kitchen table casual players can play when mom sprawled out her “organized” session of coupon clipping. It’s where every player has a chance to make a difference. If you work at one you can also come up with some fun and creative ways to run tournaments or pull players to your store. Nothing is more satisfying than making the store profit while also keeping the players fed and happy. Everything above is a moment, experience, or story I was a part of or observed at a LGS. I didn’t have to say a card name or tell and exaggerated “how I made him salty” story to convince you this community is diverse and one-of-a-kind.
